User blog:Gearoid/Week 3
The first meeting of the third week took place on Tuesday 23/06/2015 and it was during this meeting that the project’s visual aesthetics were discussed in great detail. We began the construction of the Moodboard in this meeting with several members of the group contributing images that would aid us in our decision in relation to the overall theme. Many of the images that were placed upon the Moodboard were of lavishly decorated tables in woodland settings with a Victorian-era aesthetic, which also called to mind the well-known literary device of the pathetic fallacy. There were also elements of the ethereal and the surreal, which of course fits in perfectly with the eccentricities and idiosyncratic elements of Alice in Wonderland. We spoke of the construction and design of the table, materials and overall colour palette, which particular shape it should have, how big it should be, and whether or not one end of the table should have a completely different aesthetic to the other end. Following this, another brainstorming session ensued and we spoke of the objects and concepts that we would like to include on the table itself, which included: the incorporation of black holes, simulating a space environment, utilising forced perspective as a means of size manipulation in order to simulate Alice’s shape-shifting, manipulating perception of time with several modified clocks, cutlery and crockery to behave in an unexpected manner, and utilising experimental sounds to help create an ethereal environment. In addition to this, we also delegated roles to Gemma and Niamh during this meeting. Gemma took the responsibility of “Artistic Director”; because of her background in fine art and because she showed an explicit eagerness in the organisation of the Moodboard, it was decided that she would be in charge of the overall aesthetic of the table. Niamh also took the role of “Creative Director”, and she will be in charge of the project’s branding and the design elements of the group’s wikia. We agreed to spend the time until our next meeting putting up all of our ideas and concepts for the table on a spreadsheet, and we would review the ideas at the next meeting. The second meeting of the third week was held on Thursday 25/06/2015 during which we reviewed all of the thirty ideas that we were put up on the spreadsheet by every member of the team. After the review was completed, each member of the team took on an individual task that they would work on for the first phase of the summer project. I myself will be researching black holes to be used within an animation that will (hopefully) be used in a VR environment via Google Cardboard, and if possible, to be installed into a Papier Maché rabbit head to be worn by the user. Due to her background in audio, Niamh will be working on manipulating ambient sounds through the construction of a NIME teapot (New Interface for Musical Expression). Cian will be working with digital placeholders and image manipulation through the use of a hidden camera, Gemma will be working with interactive jam jars and creating a Python script that will generate a text in the style of the ancient Voynich manuscript, and Rich will be working with time manipulation and clocks. I also brought up the idea of possibly incorporating the LEAP Motion Sensor into our project, and I took out one of the three in-house sensors to experiment with over the weekend and the next week. Category:Blog posts